Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Great Risk that Sweden extradite Assange to the US

Dagens Nyheter (DN) published today 11 of December 2013 a main debate article ["Risken är stor att Sverige utlämnar Assange till USA"]
authored by Thomas Olsson and Per E Samuelson – Assange's lawyers in
Sweden – and by Michael Ratner, Assange's lawyer in the United States.

[A translation by Professors blogg]

By
December 7, 2013 Julian Assange has been detained for three years on
the base of a Swedish arrest warrant. On November 27, Expressen wrote
"Assange not prosecuted in the United States." There it was quoted the
lawyer Elisabeth Massi Fritz, and [Expressen] pursued contact with
prosecutor Marianne Ny and lawyer Claes Borgström, for comments; but
they did not contact Assange's lawyers.

Expressen’s
unilateral journalism is a typical example as how Assange is treated in
Sweden. No one takes care about fact-finding. Everybody trumpeting the
same message: "He's hiding in the embassy to avoid prosecution for sex
crimes in Sweden." This is incorrect. The facts are these:

Chelsea
(formerly Bradley) Manning was convicted in August this year to 35
years in prison for having handed over a huge amount of documents to
WikiLeaks. The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture assessed the treatment
endured by Manning while in detention, as inhuman and degrading.

Because
of the above, even a preliminary investigation against WikiLeaks has
been progressing since 2010. In the United States it is instrumented a
so-called grand jury proceedings in criminal cases. A jury assesses
whether sufficient grounds for prosecution would exist. There are many
indications on that a grand jury has already decided on a secret
indictment against Assange.

Julian Assange. Picture published by DN.se

On
29 November and 6 December 2010 the U.S. prosecutor at the Justice
Department, Eric Holder, public confirmed an "Active, ongoing criminal
investigation" against Wikileaks in the form of a grand jury proceeding.
In Alexandria, Virginia, has a secret grand jury been appointed since
2010. At least seven people are investigated, including the "founders,
owners or managers of WikiLeaks".

On
November 18 this year, a government official familiar with the
investigation confirmed to the Washington Post: "I can not predict
what's going to happen. The investigation is ongoing . " And as recently
as November 26, 2013 said Fay Brundage, a spokesperson for the
prosecutor's office at Eastern District of Virginia (where the
preliminary investigation s carried out) that it was still in progress.

There is thus no doubt that a preliminary investigation against WikiLeaks is ongoing in the U.S.

Assange therefore risks getting a very long prison sentence if he is
extradited to the U.S., at least [a prison sentence] as severe as the 35
years in Manning's case. It is because of that risk that Ecuador has
granted Assange political asylum. It is because of that risk that
Assange wants to use his political asylum.

He
has however nothing to against to cooperate in the criminal
investigation in Sweden. Julian Assange cooperated fully, even before he
was arrested, to answer all questions related to the investigation. We
have repeatedly requested that Marianne Ny [proceed to] questioning
Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Ecuador has offered to
contribute thereto. Marianne Ny refuses to go to London and require
instead that Assange voluntarily refrains from his political asylum and
go to Sweden. If Assange does as Marianne Ny wants, he risks that Sweden
will extradite him to the United States.

Even
about this point, the public debate in Sweden has come into agreement
on false grounds. They claim namely that Sweden would never extradite
Assange to the U.S. The truth is that there is a real risk that Assange
will be extradited.

Despite
repeated requests from us and from the Ecuadorian government, the
Swedish government refuses to promise not to extradite Assange to the
U.S., in the event that he would come to Sweden. The English newspaper
The Independent revealed as early as 8 December 2010 the ongoing
informal talks between the U.S. and Sweden on the extradition of
Assange. There are no indications that the Swedish government would
oppose the U.S.

Only
the United States know how great this risk actually is. For Assange,
and for all advocates of freedom of the press, would even a small risk
being too high. It is surprising that the Swedish media do not see the
demerits of all this.

If
Chelsea Manning has provided material to WikiLeaks, so is she a
journalistic source. U.S. punishes thus not only the alleged source
severely (Manning ), but also the journalists who have published (
Wikileaks ).

That
the United States is threatening journalists with decades in prison, or
more, for the publishing of material that they have received from their
sources, is extremely worrying. That a prosecutor in Sweden keeps such a
journalist arrested for years and years on a small embassy in London
(with the help of a European arrest warrant) rather than to go there and
interrogate him, is scandalous.

The
conclusion is that Sweden does not respect the asylum that Assange
received (by Ecuador) to protect him from spending the rest of his life
in a U.S. prison, for his journalistic revelations. Against this
background, the questions that the Swedish people really should be
asking are the following:

Why Sweden do not respect Assange's political asylum?

Why does the prosecutor demands that Assange must surrender his basic human right to asylum?

Why she does not run to the investigation forward with respect for his political asylum?

Why does she not go to London for questioning Assange?

Is the answer that Sweden acts on behalf of the U.S.?

Thomas Olsson, lawyer for Assange in Sweden

Michael Ratner, Assange's lawyer in the United States , President Emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights

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